The Fourth Reason

April 23, 2018

Over just one year the vegan population has risen from1% to 7%in the UK alone. This sudden increase is because of the information available to us regarding the destruction caused by the farming industry, highlighting three, very good, reasons to go vegan:

1. For the animals

The injustice done against innocent animals was my sole reason for going vegan. Once I educated myself about farming practices, I knew I was finished with animal products for good. For anyone that would like to know more, gather all your strength and attempt to watch the compelling documentary, Earthlings.Warning: The trailer was too graphic for me. Good luck!

2. For your health

Who knew it, fruit and veg are healthy?! In recent years, more people are moving towards veganism because it’s been proven time and time again that it’s an incredibly healthy lifestyle (unless you’re a junk food vegan!). For more information, check out the mega documentaryWhat The Healthand if you think that’s too biased for you, then ask my fellow non-vegan bloggerIt’s A Fair Meal– he knows his stuff!

3. For the planet

Industrial farming is one of the most destructive industries on the planet, being theleading cause of deforestationand also the reason for manyocean dead zones. I know it may seem obvious to some, but I’ll say it anyway… If marine life ceases to exist or the rainforests are depleted, we, the human race, are doomed. As a consequence, people are taking a stand against industrial farming by going vegan, one of the most ethical ways to live in this day and age.

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So those are the three main reasons for going vegan. But for some people, they are just not enough. Some people, like Wonderful Husband.

For the animals: He doesn’t feel compassion for animals in general.

For your health: He eats a plant-based diet 95% of the time so he’s in pretty amazing shape, so why should he go 100%?

For the planet: Yea he cares about the planet, but he hasn’t gone vegan…

However, he does feel incredible compassion for humans.

Growing up in middle-class India, Wonderful Husband saw extreme poverty and hunger on a day-to-day basis and therefore has always felt a need to help the less fortunate around him. In looking for a way for Wonderful Husband to connect with veganism, I’ve learnt about a genuine fourth reason for people to go vegan.

4. For the people

The planet produces enough food to feedevery single person, however815 millionpeople still go to bed hungry every night. One of the main reasons that people are starving is because an enormous amount of the available food we produce is used to fatten up farm animals before they are killed.

Feeding grain to farm animals would be a great use of food resources if animal meat produced more calories than the grain fed to the animals itself, however it doesn’t. In onepaper, they state

That’s quite a loss!

Given that75% of all agricultural landon the planet is used for animal production, this is an incredibly inefficient use of resources and people are suffering as a consequence.

I write a lot of articles in which people comment that humans are more important than animals… Well, here’s the reason you should now go vegan if you think humans are more important than animals, unless those humans aren’t as important as your craving for meat, of course 💚

Great post! Maybe I am too pessimistic, but I think for some people even this will not be enough because they truly care more about their lifestyle than anyone or anything else, but in any case it’s important to spread this information.

Great post! Like usual you make very good points! I never even thought about the loss of resources we face from so much farming! I definitely think people are addicted to meat more than they know or want to admit. They say they need it, but there are examples of completely different people out there thriving off of vegan diets. Keep up the great work my friend!

I hope you learnt something from this post 🙂 Great to hear you’re loving your veggies and if you love meat, then they are soooo many meat substitutes out there that are super tasty without hurting animals 💚

Great post! You make some very valid points. I think people are too worried about not getting enough protein in their diet due to the stigma that meat is the primary source of protein when it should be preached that plants also carry proteins. I love the 4th reason, very insightful!

Ah thank you for your very thoughtful comment, Leah. You’re right, people are totally misinformed about protein. Animals can’t make protein, they only get protein because they eat plants (the only thing that can actually make protein!). I feel another blog post coming… Thank you for the inspiration 💚

I appreciate your honesty, Kendra. I would have said the same thing (about not going vegan) a few years ago. It took me a very long transitional period to make the jump so if you ever get interested, feel free to get in touch 🙂 I started by cutting one thing out of my diet, and then two, and so forth. It gets easier with time 💚

Being honest, I have never done research into the vegan movement. However, your post is very informational and I really love how you added the push backs from your husband and how you overcame them. The human impact is not touched on nearly as much as the animal impact and using compassionate language you have persuaded me to read more about this!

I owe so much to my Husband, he makes me try harder at being vegan all the time. There is no way that I’d ever want to guilt him into being vegan but I learn so much from trying to reflect about how he feels about the related topics, hence the non-animal approach (as you rightly said!).

If you’d ever like more information then I would be more than happy to share it with you and I’m open to discussion. Thanks again 💚

Having recently switched to vegetarian cold turkey (ha.. cold tofu maybe?) I appreciate the points you make about going vegan. I feel I’m working towards that, but I’ve made huge changes in the products I buy and support. most people just say “I couldn’t do it!” which really just tells me they haven’t experienced meatless food. It’s really quite delicious! Love the post!

Congrats on going veggie! So happy to hear that you’re making so many positive changes and you’re thinking about veganism 🙂 Let me know if you ever need any support.

You’re right about what other people say but you’re a great example for the people that say they can’t do it. You’ll find that people around you will follow your example more and more though (especially when they see all the delicious food you’re eating!) 💚